Thermally activated delayed fluorescence materials for CO2 reduction

Abstract

During the past decades, massive CO2 emission has caused serious environmental issues including global warming and climate change. To solve this problem, chemists tried to directly convert CO2 to high-value-added chemicals through photocatalytic methods. A series of photocatalysts such as noble-metal complex, organic dyes, and semiconductors were developed to increase higher CO2 conversion efficiency. Among them, organic dyes possessing thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) phenomenon were one of the most abstracting and efficient photosensitizers to realize CO2 reduction because of their high quantum efficiency, long lifetime, and wide redox window. In this review, the recent developments of TADF organic molecules as homogeneous or heterogeneous photocatalysts for the reduction of CO2 were covered. Firstly, the mechanism of photocatalytic CO2 reduction was briefly introduced. Secondly, the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 with TADF organic molecules as homogeneous photocatalyst were summarized followed by the heterogeneous photocatalysis system which employed the MOF material with TADF moiety as a photocatalyst. Finally, the challenges, promising suggestions, and outlooks for the future development of photocatalytic CO2 conversion were also highlighted.